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Tears of a Sea Cow
Tears of a Sea Cow is the 34th episode of The Venture Bros. and is part of Season 3. Plot The episode begins with The Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend raiding the base of their new arch-enemy, Dr. Dugong, who appropriately resembles a manatee. The caper falls completely flat for The Monarch, who considers Dr. Dugong an ineffectual adversary (indeed, the Doctor seems only interested in talking about marine life). Dr. Girlfriend urges The Monarch to step up his half-hearted aggression, and suggests he visualize Dr. Dugong as The Monarch's preferred rival, Dr. Venture. However, this works too well as The Monarch simply strides up and kills his adversary by a bazooka to the face. This leaves the nefarious couple once again without a nemesis. Meanwhile, back at the Venture Compound, Hank, Dean and Dermott have the compound to themselves as Dr. Venture and Brock have gone to a Science Convention, where Dr. Venture plans to exhibit his dynamic new invention: The Boom Broom. Dermott and Hank plan to form a band, with Dermott on vocals, Hank on bass and H.E.L.P.e.R. playing percussion through his internal system. Dean meanwhile is publishing the next version of his newspaper, which apparently only The Monarch and #21 actually read. Back at the cocoon, Dr. Girlfriend berates her husband over their declining standing in the Guild of Calamitous Intent due to The Monarch killing off his replacement "arches." Later, wandering the halls of his cocoon with #21 and #24, The Monarch laments the fact that he no longer enjoys supervilliany since Dr. Venture gave him the challenge he wanted. The trio decide to relive old times by doing an impromptu (and unauthorized) raid on his compound. Meanwhile, H.E.L.P.e.R.'s percussion music continues endlessly, much to the chagrin of the Venture boys. Unable to turn it off, they lock the hapless robot in the closet, but even that does not muffle the noise sufficiently. Hank and Dermott camp out on the compound lawn, while Dean tries to ignore the music. Finally, unable to take it any more, Dean orders H.E.L.P.e.R. to shut down all accessible sound systems, which has the side effect of disabling the audible components of the Venture Compound's security system, just as the marauding Monarch and his henchman arrive. The compound's security lasers (silently) bombard the butterfly-themed baddies, blowing up the septic tank, nearly killing the Monarch, 21, and 24, and alerting the boys. Hank and Dean try to call Dr. Venture and Brock on their two-ways, but both of them do not answer (due to them both being asleep). #21 and #24 take cover in the hangar, while The Monarch slips inside the compound. Hank and Dermott are investigating the damage when the two henchmen spot them and give chase. #24 easily captures Dermott, who presence is questioned by #24, having not seen Dermott before in the compound. Dermott first reveals that he is Hank's friend, but #24 doesn't believe him. Dermott follows up by claiming that he is Brock's long-lost son, but #24 states that's impossible because he caught Dermott so easily. Inside, The Monarch finds Dr. Venture's lab. He performs miscellaneous acts of sabotage and mischief, culminating in finding Venture's guard robot G.U.A.R.D.O., and has sex with it. Dean walks in on this, and The Monarch claims that he is trying to infect with Chlamydia and then uses reverse psychology to convince Dean that reporting this perverted act to his father would be playing into the Monarch's diabolical scheme. The supervillain then gathers his clothes and sheepishly exits. At this time, Dr. Girlfriend realizes that The Monarch has broken his word and is probably out raiding the compound. When Tim-Tom and Kevin ask about his hatred for Dr. Venture, Dr. Girlfriend only states that Dr. Venture did "nothing worth destroying a career--a marriage" before she calls the Cocoon personnel to attention and flies to the Compound to retrieve her husband. Meanwhile, #24 has convinced Dermott to also not tell Dr. Venture and Brock of their raid, by bribing him with Monarch weaponry. #21 calls a truce with Hank (mostly because he can't catch up to him) and tells Hank that he is just going through the motions of killing him because he thinks Hank is immortal. #21, after all, saw him die twice and then inexplicably turn up again. He then shoots Hank with a dart from his gun, which turns out to just be a tranquilizer. At this time, the Cocoon arrives and collects all of the villains. As it leaves, Hank wakes up from his tranquilizer attack, and subsequently buys into the theory that he is an immortal, like The Highlander. For the epilogue, the Cocoon is shown over the ocean, approaching The Monarch's latest nemesis, whom Dr. Girlfriend chose as a close alternate to Dr. Venture -- his brother, Jonas Venture Junior. The Cocoon rapidly approaches Spider Skull Island for their first encounter. Cultural references * Hank wants his band to be "the biggest thing since Eddie and the Cruisers." Eddie and the Cruisers is a movie based on a novel by P.F. Kluge about a fictitious rock band. * Dr. Dugong's sole security system seems to consist of an antiquated robot, which strongly resembles a robot from the music video for Styx's song, Mr. Roboto. The Monarch notices this and points it out. * Dermott, thinking #24 is an alien, defends himself by spitting and coughing in #24's direction, which he explains is an attempt to kill the invader by infecting him with his "earth germs." This is how the aliens are defeated in War of the Worlds. * Dermott mentions his "Gymkata" kick. Gymkata is an infamously terrible kung fu/gymnastics hybrid movie. Connections to other episodes * G.U.A.R.D.O. was last seen in "Home Insecurity".Episode "Home Insecurity". * #21 uses the alias of G. Viceroy, a combination of his first initial (Gary) and the supervillain name he suggested for himself in "Powerless in the Face of Death". Production notes * One of the animation directors (Kimson Albert) has a "nickname" inserted into his credits. The nickname is an unusual line or word from the preceding episode. For "Tears of a Sea Cow" the credit reads Kimson "Weenis" Albert. References Tears of a Sea Cow